The moment caught all of them off guard, Jihyo felt like the third party as she stood in between these two people. Most of all, she didn’t want to interfere with their complicated relationship. Just right about then she remembered what Jaejoong said during their trip to New York. “I’m thinking about starting over with her.” Her heart shrunk again, remembering how she felt on that day. I totally forgot about them… She thought about how she only cared about her feelings and the humiliation she had when she told him about her feelings.

Jaejoong stood there staring at Yoona, his bolted up feelings for her started to appear again. Yet, he could not ignore Jihyo and the crowd looking at him. What was more intense was how Yoona looked at him with weary eyes, those eyes told a thousand words. He wished he could explain at that moment but all that he thought of was “Sorry.” Sorry to whom?

He slowly approached Jihyo at the corner, “Happy Birthday!” his heart stumbled after realizing what he had done. “You’re getting off for lunch right? Let’s go eat together.” His acting skills were on the top, but Jihyo knew the truth. “Let’s go.” He places his arm around her back while he led the way.

Jihyo was speechless, maybe it’s because he didn’t give the two women the chance to say something. If they did say something, it’s going to be just full of questions.

-

“I want to get something delicious.” Jaejoong looked at the menu, they decided to eat lunch at a traditional Korean restaurant. “We should also order seaweed soup.” He says while still keeping his eyes on the menu. Jihyo silently sat there staring at him and at the same time looking at the paper bag at his side. “I haven’t eaten the whole day, let’s order a lot.” He bit his lip. “Oh yea, I heard your department is going on an MT trip to Gyeongsangdo. Are you going?” he asked, “But then again, at this weather? It’s too hot to go out.”

Finally Jihyo’s frustration was at its , “Yah, what are you doing? Do you know you’re talking too much right now?” with her fierce words, Jaejoong stopped to look at her. “Are you stupid? Do you think I’m stupid? I know what you did jerk.” She cursed at him.

“What are you talking about?” Jaejoong was clueless.

“Are you trying to put up a face right now? Just to let you know it’s not working. I know exactly how much you like her, but seriously. What are you doing?”

Jaejoong was silent for a moment, “What?” he felt troubled with the things that Jihyo was pointing at him. “What do you know?” he wanted to make sure that she could clarify what she wanted to tell him. He had an idea but at the same time he felt flustered because he was afraid that she had the sensibility of reading his feelings.

It was hard for Jihyo to keep her thoughts to herself. “If you liked her so much why did you agree to make this fake relationship? You said you were going to start over with her. But what the hell are you doing right now?” Jihyo’s heart was pounding, even though she was a person to complain a lot she never took anything hard to herself. She didn’t want to be affected with problems like these because she already deals with her own difficulties. “What show are you trying to put on? Did she dump you? Are you using me to make her jealous?”

“You’re crossing the line there.” Jaejoong strongly uttered.

“What?” Jihyo was looking for his fault in the conversation, “This is the first time you told me that. And what line are you talking about? You’re the one confusing me, I don’t want to have anything to do with you guys. Don’t use me as an excuse.”

“Did I ask for your opinions? I think you’re the one confusing yourself. My relationships has nothing to do with you, maybe you’re forgetting that our relationship is not real.”

Jihyo forcefully exhaled and smirked, “Opinions? Did I say something about your lame act? Just because you can’t explain to her what’s really happening, don’t try to act like you actually care about us right now.” She knew her own feelings; she was too disappointed of the truth.

“That’s it, stop!” He exclaimed.

“Alright, let’s end the pretense.” Jihyo got up storming out room.

Everything became suddenly quiet, the silence was too overwhelming. Jaejoong sat there alone staring deeply into space furious about what happened but most of all he was confused. He turned his head to see the paperbag with Jihyo’s birthday present inside. He felt regret that he wasn’t able to give it to her.

-

Jihyo burned up all her frustration by walking endlessly through the sidewalk. She was walking with no direction, and the heaving pain in her chest was too overbearing. It has been a long time since she felt that way. It was the same feeling she got after dumping Jongkook 8 years ago. She finally came to a stop, she stopped in the middle of the highway. She stared into space and watched people pass her by. “What the f**k!” she could care less about her image at that time.

-

The day ended slowly for Jaejoong and Jihyo. Jaejoong was still urged to give the present to her, but he didn’t find the right timing. Finally, he thought about dropping by her office and leaving her present there. As soon as he got there, no one was around because office hours where over. It’s also his first time being there, he looked at the surroundings and thought that her office really resembled her personality. It was gloomy, and all he saw where books and different references she needed for work. He stopped and places her present on her desk. He saw a photograph of her whole family on her desk and a candy jar half filled with dark chocolates.

He was able to imagine her sitting here the whole day doing paper work and going to meetings. It’s hard to imagine you as a woman. He thought, then he saw her collection of CD’s at the right side of the room. He looked over there to see that she had all of DBSK, LeeSsang and Kim Jongkook’s albums. She only liked those three specific artists. “You’re still hyung’s fan?”

-

The next day, Jihyo arrived at work. She dropped her bag on her desk when she spotted the paper bag that she saw Jaejoong had yesterday. She slowly grabbed it and opened to see her present. “Happy Birthday.” She took it out and saw the Palaroid camera. Her eyes blinked a few times, she was amazed. “I really wanted something like this.” She was excited, she thought of getting that kind of camera but never had the chance to. She was happy, she was checking out the camera for a while until she noticed something different on her desk. “Did he touch my chocolates?” she frowned to see the jar lid open. She suddenly sneered.